He was born in 1980 in the Samandağ district of Hatay. He completed his primary, middle, and high school education in the Ceyhan district of Adana. In 1999, he was accepted into the Primary School Teaching program at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Ankara University. He graduated from the same program in 2003. During his university studies, he developed an interest in the field of Creative Drama, receiving training in the subject and taking on various roles in related social communities.
Between 2004 and 2005, he worked as a volunteer with individuals with disabilities at a residential training institution in Northern Ireland. In 2005, he completed the Instructorship Program at the Contemporary Drama Association. From 2005 to 2011, while studying in the non-thesis and thesis Master’s Degree programs in Creative Drama at the Ankara University Institute of Educational Sciences, Zeki Özen also served as a Board Member of the Contemporary Drama Association.
He worked as a drama teacher at TED Ankara College during the 2005-2006 academic year and at the Ankara University Development Foundation Private Schools from 2006 to 2010. Zeki Özen, who has been working in the Department of Primary School Teaching at Ankara University’s Faculty of Educational Sciences since 2010, completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Fine Arts Education at the Ankara University Institute of Educational Sciences in 2018. He is currently continuing his work as a faculty member in the Department of Basic Education at Ankara University’s Faculty of Educational Sciences.